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Saturday, March 17, 2012

St. Patrick's Day Meal and A Garden Show tour

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We are having a pretty quiet night at home, but I have had the crock pot going all day so we have a good traditional Irish American dinner even if we don't have green beer! The corned beef is so good - I used a recipe from a blogging friend, Cathy over at Wives with Knives. I really don't think there is any need to ever look for another recipe for corned beef again. It's that good! The glaze at the end is what makes it so yummy.

This is Cathy's Method and I followed it pretty much expect no parsley and I added potatoes to the crock pot:

"I put lots of peeled carrots, 2 chopped onions and a handful of parsley sprigs on the bottom of the pot, laid the corned beef on top, sprinkled on the spice packet and added enough water to cover. I set the temperature on high for two hours, then turned it to low for an additional 7 hours. The crock pot works so well because the water never boils, it just gently simmers.

When the meat is ready to serve I trim the fat off the top and spread it with a mixture of 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard, a dash of cloves and 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar. Place under the broiler until the sugar is melted and crusty. You will be amazed at how much flavor this adds to the corned beef. This was my mother’s trick and I couldn’t imagine serving corned beef any other way."

The broiling part it key so don't skip it! I had made some Irish Soda bread on Friday for the girls at work so I added that to the table too. I used the King Arthur's Flour recipe. Very good!

Topping

Preheat oven to 375°. Grease a loaf pan. Mix first six ingredients plus seeds if you are using. In a separate bowl mix together the egg and buttermilk. Whisk the liquid into the dry ingredients. Ad 4 tablespoons of melted better mixing just until combined. The batter will be thick - spoon it into prepared loaf pan. Drizzle with the tablespoon of milk and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake bread for 50-55 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. If you have a temperature probe King Arthur says it should be between 200 & 210. Remove the bread from the oven, and loosen its sides with a heatproof spatula or table knife. After 5 minutes, turn it out of the pan onto a rack to cool. Eat alone, with butter or maybe some marmalade.

Doesn't St. Patrick's Day just make you think spring is just around the corner. For some of you it has already arrived. We on the other hand had snow AGAIN this morning :-) It was gone by noon but still... I went to the Northwest Garden Show earlier this year and haven't shared the pics. This is probably a great time to do that now that I am really itching for spring to show up!

The theme this year was A Floral Symphony with all of the exhibits having some musical tie in. It was interesting to see what everyone came up with. I'm afraid I've forgotten some of the exhibit names, but I'll give you the gist :-) There is always a bright spring display in the lobby before you enter so not sure if it actually had a name but I loved this vertical display. There were musical instruments placed here and there. So maybe it was just meant to embody the main theme.

I loved the path on this display...I think it was a "heavy metal" rock and roll kind of them. You will have to excuse the lighting in these photos. They dim the lights and it almost feels like twilight it's so dark.

This was one of my favorite displays mostly because of this beautiful light strung gazebo

My absolute favorite was the April in Paris display. Pictures do not do justice to how cute it was.

Here's another angle

The theme of this display was Birdsong...loved this gate

And this pretty mosaic

There was a lot to take in and admire about this display

I liked the play on the verses like the use of black mondo grass in the blackbird vignette.

I love how many of the displays keep with the "woodsy" natural feel of the Pacific Northwest like this fanciful pond scene

This was a great display "Redefining Adante"..notice the grand piano which at times had live music being played.

The pond had real koi too...such pretty colors. I've never seen the yellow kind before.

There was actually all kinds of live music being played throughout the exhibits. I caught these banjoers in action

And their resting instruments later in the day

The Persian garden drawing from Scheherazade had beautiful colors like this turquoise pool.And a raised sleeping platform

With casual dining

There was a Symphony Orchidstra display!

Another nice outdoor living area

I believe these panels were in the same display..love them

The garden show is always good for showing ways to recycle things. Can you guess what this is meant to be?

Lets hope not the Roach Motel! :-)

I think this one might have been A Concert in the Park and at the moment I passed through there was a Johnny Depp look alike playing soulfully on the accordion.That big pot you see in the background is made of plastic...not sure how they were illuminated. Here are a trio of them

Being a Johnny Depp fan...I had to snap another sneaky shot of him

I thought this was one of the more clever plays on a song title...Twisting the Night Away featuring these beautifully contorted trees.

In the same display was this pretty foot bridge and some red camellias which were a popular shrub at the show

The people's choice award went to this amazing display that had rigged things up so that water dripped down on these "drums". The sound it made was amazing...very deep and resonating.

After the displays I headed to the vendors ...just window shopping mostly. But they have such cute things that I reallly neeeed......lol. Like this giant rooster...

She's pretty cute too

Or I could always use another sun

Or maybe this one

Doesn't every one need a frog hammock chair?

Or some glass bamboo or cactus?

But this is on top of my wish list...I really really need this little pair

There is another little area that has container displays that I look forward to each year

Dinner looks great! Corned beef is always welcome in our house...sad that it is only on sale once a year!

Looks like a fun day touring the garden show...so many ideas to put in the back of your mind.I can't believe you have had more snow than we have had this year...I know we still have lots of time for a big storm, even though we have already hit the 80's.

some day I am going to plan a visit to see you and attend the beautiful garden show :) The photos are so very gorgeous and I bet you came home with lots of ideas. Following your garden pins on pinterest has given me lots of ideas :)

I can't believe you are getting snow and we are getting record heat - 80 3 days in a row!

I didn't get to make a corned beef over St. Patrick's Day weekend but I just bought one yesterday - better late than never :)

I love those garden shows! Yours is one of the best.

My gosh, it felt like July today here today! A little freaky, actually. It was in the upper 80s! Things are blooming earlier than I can ever remember. We could still have a blizzard but I certainly hope not!

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About Me

There are two places I love to be...in the kitchen creating something good to eat and in my yard digging, planting, photographing and generally enjoying my flowers and veggies. I have lots of help from my wonderful hubby Randy and my baby Shih Tzu Jigs! At least in the eating department!! Randy is pretty good in the yard too :-)